KARACHI: Comments in activist’s detention case sought
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, APRIL 19: A division bench of the Sindh High Court sought comments from the ministry of defence in a petition challenging the alleged detention of Dr Safdar Sarki, secretary-general of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz.
Earlier, the federal government’s standing counsel, Ziauddin Nasir, informed the bench that according to information obtained by him, the alleged detainee had neither been arrested not kept in custody by any agency functioning under the Karachi-based Corps-5 of the Pakistan Army.
He produced a letter addressed to him by an assistant judge advocate-general. The police, according to Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan, had nothing to do with the matter. The AAG said he had obtained reports from all district police officers, besides an affidavit sworn by the police officer alleged to have arrested the alleged detainee.
The petitioner’s counsel, Advocates Nooruddin Sarki and Syed Ghulam Shah, however, insisted that Dr Sarki was initially picked up by a police officer but subsequently handed to military agencies. The affidavit in denial had been submitted by an SP while the arrest was made by a DSP, they maintained.
According to the counsel, the detainee was currently being kept in confinement by the Inter-Services Intelligence at Naiper Barracks and there was no specific denial of their statement even in the Corps-5 letter produced by the federal attorney.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Gulzar Ahmed, asked the federal attorney to contact the ministry of defence, under which all military agencies worked, and submit a statement on its behalf by May 5, the next date of hearing.
Permits to buses: A complete ban on registration and issuance of route permits to old buses and two-stroke auto rickshaws from 2006 was indicated by the city’s traffic deputy inspector-general in the comments filed by him before a division bench of the Sindh High Court.
DIG Falak Khurshid filed the comments in response to a court order in a petition moved by a lawyer, Islamuddin, for curbing air and noise pollution and traffic jams and mishaps in the city. In its comments earlier, the city district government stated that the double stroke rickshaws were phased out and bus stops and stands were being shifted outside the city.
The petitioner had alleged connivance between the traffic police and transport department officials. It was compounded by the city district government’s apathy and inaction, the petitioner said.
The DIG, a respondent in the petition, requested the court to ask the environmental protection agency to ensure strict compliance with the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997. The 1997 Act provides for stringent penalties while the punishment under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965, was meagre.
Advocate Manzoor Ahmed submitted on behalf of the city district government that vehicles operated by compressed natural gas (CNG) were being introduced but the implementation of the measures taken in respect of pollution depended on transport department’s notifications. The department could make the use of CNG compulsory by the vehicles and issue necessary notification, he said.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Gulzar Ahmed, asked the Sindh chief secretary and the EPA director-general to appear on April 26, the next date of hearing.
STOPPED: The Sindh High Court asked a builder on Wednesday to suspend all construction activity on a plot in Al-Hilal Co-operative Society till the next date of hearing of a suit instituted against him. Residents of Al-Hayat Square in the society submitted through Advocates C.M. Saleemuzzaman and Arshad Iqbal that an illegal and unauthorized construction was being raised on a 40 feet wide road unlawfully converted into a plot. The structure being raised has blocked their emergency exit. The residents sought an interim injunction against the builder in their pending suit and Justice Mabool Baqar, issuing notice to the builder for April 26, ordered that status quo should be maintained in the meanwhile. The residents also requested the court to appoint the SHC nazir to visit the site to ascertain the correct position. ILLEGAL BARRIERS: Meanwhile, a division bench comprising S. Zawwar Hussain Jaffery and Maqbool Baqar adjourned the hearing of a petition moved by Barrister Syed Iqbal Ahmed against the erection of barriers on both ends of a street in Block 2 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal and encroachment of the street’s footpaths on both sides. While the barriers obstructed vehicular traffic, the encroachments infringed the pedestrians’ right of way. The encroachments consist of motor garages, iron grills, cement platform and lawns.
